Fredericktown wrestlers fare well at home invitational

A little home cooking was good for the Fredericktown boys’ wrestling team.

The Freddies had several wrestlers place and the team finished ninth in its own Freddie Invitational on Jan. 10.

“I think they did really well,” said Fredericktown coach Joe Stotts. “I’ve got a couple of kids that stood out. Junior Aidan Ebersole, for a second-year wrestler, every week he’s taking top four, top five. He wound up taking fourth, which is astonishing. Owen Garver, another standout kid, a freshman, wound up taking third.

“That’s what really gets me — a lot of my guys are second, maybe third-year wrestlers coming up. So, the fact we’re taking top four or top five with a handful of those guys every weekend really says a lot about where we’re going in the future.”

The present was pretty solid for the Freddies, as Garver (144 pounds) and senior Domenic Wolpe (285) both finished third in their weight classes. Junior Aidan Ebersole (157) came in fourth and four wrestlers were in the running for top five.

Garver won both of his pool play matches by pin, winning in 3:37 and 3:24 (over Mount Vernon’s Noah Maleszewski). The freshman dropped a 16-4 decision in the bracket play, but bounced back to beat Mount Gilead’s Aiden Keller, 6-2, and finish third.

Wolpe controlled Danville heavyweight Carter Wittel for most of the first period, but Wittel used a quick move to put Wolpe on his back and pin him in 2:40. The Freddie senior rallied though, to win his next four matches — all by pin — and finish third. Wolpe needed just 1:05 for one of those pins and just 13 seconds for another.

“I thought he was going to beat the Danville kid, who was the No. 1 seed. I honestly thought Dom had him. A little slip up is what got him,” Stotts said. “For a kid that took a four-year break from wrestling and come back and be placing. I think he took third or fourth last week at Grandview; took third this week. He’s making leaps and bounds every week after taking an extended period off. He’s a super great kid. Real quiet, stays to himself, real humble but goes out and gets the job done. He bounced right back. We had a short conversation, said, ‘this is what we’ve got to do,’ and he went out and got things done. That’s one thing I can say about all our guys is we give them constructive criticism, a little bit of critique here and there. They go right out, they listen, they do it.”

Ebersol won his first three matches (two via pins) but was pinned by Jakob Arnold of Coshocton to finish fourth at 157. Freshman John Wood (132) picked up two pinfall victories, as did Xavier Whitt (144) and Jayce Beeman (150) for the Freddies. Freshman Clayton Walters (113), junior Gage Selby (150) and sophomore Tripp Gray (175) each had one win during the tournament in front of the home crowd.

“I made the comment to one our coaches. I’ve been there the last two years. Typically, when our kids win a match, you hear mom, dad, maybe grandpa, grandma cheer,” Stotts said. “We’re real big on if one or guys is wrestling, that whole team better be watching them. It was like every time one of our kids won, that whole gymnasium was whooping and hollering about it. As coaches, that means a lot because we’re doing something to attract more people. One of the kids even said, ‘hey coach, I won and half the gym started screaming for me.’ That was pretty cool.”

Shelby won the tournament with 267 points. Danville (10th place), Mount Vernon (14th) and East Knox (16th) also had wrestlers compete.

The Blue Devils had two wrestlers finish in second in their weight class — Camden Horn (126) and Wittel (285). Horn won his first four matches, including one by pin, before falling 4-0 to Dylan Compton of Cardington in the finals. Wittel won four matches by pin before falling 9-4 to Gavin Garrett of Shelby in the championship match.

Jonathan Stephens (106) finished fourth, recording three victories on the day, while Kyle Hackman (113) had two victories. Logan Joseph (138) and Cooper Baldridge (144) also competed for Danville.

Mount Vernon Orange’s Brandon Jaynes won the 157-pound weight class, recording five straight wins, including three pins. He pinned teammate Jace Scarbury in 2:36 in the championship match. Scarbury had reached that match with four straight pins.

Kyler Beauchamp (138) finished third, recording two pins on the day. Liam Vicars (144), Liam Broseus (157), Landon Bunzey (215) and Tanner Robinson (215) also had wins for MV.

East Knox had just one wrestler, but he finished fourth in his weight class. Brent Link (132) won two matches before falling in the third-place match.

The weekend was a full one as the girls’ team also hosted a 17-team invitational on Sunday at the gym. The Lady Freddies finished fifth overall, with several wrestlers placing on the day.

Kristina Meszarosova, a junior, won all three of her matches at 135 by pin and won her weight class. She won in times of 1:54, 1:39 and 5:18 to capture the title.

Junior Anna Miller placed third at 155 with one pin on the day, while Truth Yarman (115) won three matches overall (all by pin) to finish sixth. Addison Hess (100) and Ruthlynn Mejia-Evener each won one match on the day, while Kerrigan Murray-Brooks (120) and Aliza Lotz (145) also participated for the Freddies.

The weekend was a win overall for Fredericktown, as the community came out to support the athletes, as well as several local companies that sold nutritious drinks and snacks, as well as T-shirts.

“We tried to make it, not only coach and wrestler friendly, but families, too. Nobody wants to sit in a gym for 12 hours with a concession soda and nothing to get out of it. We made sure that if they wanted an energy bomb or a protein shake, a new T-shirt or whatever, they had that option to get them,” Stotts said. “It was nice for us to have local businesses come in and help us out. Great group of people, they’ve sponsored us earlier in the season, helping us pay for things early in the season. I think we’re going to keep that trend as long as they want to come back.”